by Christine Kenneally BH | Oct 18, 2007 | FoxP2, Genes, Neandertals
It was announced today that Neandertals had the same version of the FoxP2 gene that humans do. Because it’s thought that our particular version of FoxP2 is involved in speech and language, it may be that Neandertals also had these skills. It’ll be...
by Christine Kenneally BH | Oct 16, 2007 | Genes, Neandertals
More news from one the teams sequencing the Neandertal genome. Our large cousins traveled at least 2000 miles further than thought. Mitochondrial DNA analyses carried out by Svante Paabo and colleagues show that Neandertals traveled to central Asia and Siberia, and...
by Christine Kenneally BH | Sep 5, 2007 | Genes
Human-animal embryos have been given the go-ahead by the British government. Guardian.
by Christine Kenneally BH | Aug 27, 2007 | Ancient genomics, Genes, Ice, Resuscitation
How do bacteria survive encased in ice for millions of years? Scientist used to believe the genetic material was essentially frozen in stasis. New studies suggest that in order to stay viable the bacteria must undergo continual DNA repair over the many long years of...
by Christine Kenneally BH | Aug 12, 2007 | Ancient genomics, Genes, Ice, Resuscitation
In the Dry Valleys of the Transantarctic Mountains there are pockets of ice up to 8 million years old. Last week, scientists announced that they resuscitated microbes from this ice. If the microbes are as old as the ice, they were around long before humans split from...
by Christine Kenneally BH | Jul 18, 2007 | Africa, First human..., Genes, Prehistoric humans, Skeleton
Modern humans originated in Sub-saharan Africa, and from there spread all over the globe. Cambridge scientists, who published their study today in Nature, used genetic information combined with the measurements of 6000 skulls from collections all over the world in...
